Taking the Lost Cause Seriously

A reminder that tomorrow evening I will be hosting a presentation and discussion about the movie Glory for all paid subscribers. There is still time to upgrade and join us.

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I really like this short video featuring my friend and fellow historian, Chris Mackowski, discussing his recent purchase of a full run of Confederate Veteran magazine and the Southern Historical Society Papers from a used bookstore in Cashtown, PA. They are a must read for any serious student of the Civil War and especially Civil War memory.

I recently donated my run of CV during a recent trip to Gettysburg, owing to a lack of space in my home library and because you can now read and search through it online. You can also find many volumes of the SHSP online as well.

You hear about the Lost Cause a lot these days and most people think they have some understanding of what it entails, but it usually comes down to an overly simplified list of bullet points and a confident declaration that it is little more than a “lie.” Historians have on occasion compared it to former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 election, which I think is a gross distortion as well.

I agree with Chris’s overall analysis and explanation about why these volumes are essential reading. He is absolutely right that readers need to approach this content with a healthy dose of skepticism, but this is true for any individual account of the past, whether it was written the day after the event in question or thirty years later.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Of course, in the case of the latter, a source is much more likely to be influenced by a wide range of factors during the postwar period.

Let me be clear, there was such a thing called the Lost Cause and you will certainly find a great deal of convergence when it comes to specific questions about the cause of secession, slavery, the loyalty of the Confederate populace, and the military prowess and moral character of high-ranking generals such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

But you will also discover that accounts in both CV and SHSP offer insights into what happened during the war when paired with wartime accounts. More importantly, you will learn that former Confederates often disagreed with one another about a wide range of subjects.

One of the nice things about having the bound volumes of CV at hand is that you can see how memory of the war evolved during its roughly thirty year run.

All of you know that I am not a Lost Cause apologist, but when I read these sources I can’t help but be reminded that these men were doing their best to make sense of the defining moment in their lives. Many of them carried physical and mental wounds with them to the grave.

We should point out when memory led these men astray and how Confederate commemorations helped to prop up a Jim Crow culture of violence and segregation, but never lose sight that we are all prisoners of memory doing our best to make sense of a constantly changing world.